first off thanks for taking the time to view this. Im new to the forums and trying to get more involved in them. This is the general scheme of my workouts lately and I wanna get some feed back.

points: I like lifting closer to my max, Im more concerned in becoming stronger than necessarily "bigger" at the moment. This is the first time Im actually focusing on keeping a running progressive overload program, I took a base of one from here and tweaked it a bit. my general workouts will look like thisex. chest dayBench press-warm upset up to about 295, my max is 305 but I hit 295 for 2-3-do a negative or 2 at 315 followed by another set of 2-3 at 295Now for the progressive overload partdropping to 245, instead of doing 4 sets, I'm doing 7 sets.-the first week was sets of 3, second week sets of 4, this week was sets of 5-the single rep after, first week was 265,270, 275-then a ME set at 185.

follow on lifting will be incline bench, typically 5 sets, then after that basically 3-4 sets of flys, cable flys, hex presses, dips, maybe some isolateral work and push ups.

Im just looking for some feedback, suggestions, ideas. thanksby the way the original overload plan base is this4 sets of 3 at 245, 1 at 265, me set at 185.

I mixed another plan that was 7 sets of 3 for the initial lift, follow on exercises are 6-5.

these were two different programs on t-nation, I'm not sure the titles off the top of my headset they were fairly recent posts.

But let's put it this way: If you step into the gym every single time and try to either add a rep, set, weight, etc. to a movement it's progressive overload. Do this with decent form, eat your food, sleep, do your cardio and there really is no recipe for disaster.

Now on the other hand I really don't think doing 295x2-3 if your max is 305, followed by heavy negative, and then doing 7 sets of benching and then more singles, and then repping out is efficient. Especially followed by 6 more exercises.

anabolica: I completely understand you point about the 295 with a max or 305 thing, perhaps doing 295 for 2-3 (compared to only 1 rep, or not at all at 295) is holding me back from hitting 315. I was looking for basically anything, if people see it as an appropriate format/scheme for a workout. thats my basic template, I'm doing the something for legs and im about to do the same template for back, I just wasn't sure how exactly I was going to do it yet. but also another factor could be just the mechanical stress load, not being adjusted to 315, or heavier for that matter yet. ex I can hit70lb db's for shoulder presses 19 times, but I can't even get 75's up yet.

rampant badger: thank your the suggestion. I had looked at that and found some interest, I had done some what of the same concept before and it worked, I just think I used to to its benefitical max for the time being.

Honestly man, I don't know. I guess just the fact that I'm not adapted to the increase or something... I literally don't understand it. If I had a spot to help me get them all the way up to start the set I could probably hit it for a solid set. But I don't know I'm not a scientist. My point with it was just that sometimes the load change itself will totally throw me off

because without basically doing some crazy crossfire crap to get the dumbbells up, I can't get them up to begin the set. ill be seated, db's on my knees, throw one dumbbell up, and when I got for the other one, idk I can't get both of them up to start. my arms end up just below parallel with the ground when they "stick". without spot, I won't get them all the way up to start. its not the reps thats the problem, I barbell press up to like 185 for 3-5 behind the neck. its just getting through the deficit thats my problem. its a gap I haven't bridged yet. I was benching u to 285 when I could finally hit 100 lb dumbbells flat bench. when id roll back I just could pull out of the deficit.eventually I had a spot help means I "bridged that gap". next thing I know I was pressing 120's for 5...

thanks for the suggestion, ill give it a go over the next few weeks. and I believe in the fact that you can severely psych yourself out. thats probably a large part of it. but we'll find out! again thanks for the push press suggestion

You should add more volume instead of doing 1 or 2 reps. I used to train like that and I was stuck in the 315-325 range for year. My bench increased when I increased the rep range. Try to get 265x8,270x8,275x8,etc.